Is it fine to replace my second hard drive without reinstalling/problems?

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xTheNewGuyx

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Dec 6, 2012
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Hi,
I have my OS on my SSD and have a hdd that I want to replace. Is it fine to just open up my pc, switch the HDD with another HDD, reconnect the wires, push power and partition/format/w/e it is under disk management and it's good to go?
Or will it crash/wipe my SSD and I have to reinstall my Windows over again?


-------Don't have to read----------Something else--------- Why I want to replace---------
I think my current HDD is done. I heavily used it for a few years and last week it disappeared from my computer and any links to programs on it don't work. It happens whenever it runs through a lot of data.

First happened when opening and closing really fast checking media player classic video files. Restarted and it worked fine. Then a week later it ended up happening while checking a 26GB file before opening a game. Restarted and it temporarily worked until I opened the game and it did it again. I restarted and tried to copy files to save some non backed up info still around.

It slowly went from GBs transferring-> then restart-> 500MB -> restart -> repeat going lower and lower until it would only do about 20MB or less safely. Tried wiping under disk management and it worked for like 15 to 25 minutes of transferring about 20gb of data to test it from another external HDD. Wiped again and did about 100GB safely and it did it again. Wiped and it did it with only 20 GB. So I gave up and plan on replacing the HDD.
--------------------------

Thanks for your input and info!
 
Solution
Mattios
Yes that will work fine :)

^not really true, adding a new drive will be fine. It may cause problems if you try to boot programs installed on the old HDD (because they will no longer exist), but the system will boot and function normally perfectly fine.
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Mattios

Mattios

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Jun 24, 2013
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Yes that will work fine :)

^not really true, adding a new drive will be fine. It may cause problems if you try to boot programs installed on the old HDD (because they will no longer exist), but the system will boot and function normally perfectly fine.
 
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xTheNewGuyx

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Dec 6, 2012
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Yea I need to prepare though. Need to by stop by the store in a couple days to see what they have. If nothing is there, I'd need to order online. If I need to reinstall windows, I'll need to stop by storage to get my disc. Also maybe buy a larger SSD if I need to reinstall.
 
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larkspur

larkspur

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Mar 10, 2011
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To answer your question: Yeah, its fine to swap out the old HDD for a new one assuming Windows is installed on the SSD. It won't corrupt your SSD. Make sure the machine is unplugged from the wall when you make your changes. As Mcnumpty23 pointed out - you can just test things out by unplugging the HDD and seeing if Windows boots.

Explanation of what is probably happening: Typically when a consumer HDD "disappears" from the controller it is because it has encountered a particularly bad group of errors and has entered a deep recovery mode that lasts longer than the controller's timeout. While in deep recovery the HDD is trying to recover data and reallocate and retire bad sectors and it doesn't respond at all to the controller's commands. After a short time the controller assumes the drive is no longer there (it failed or was unplugged). This obviously causes problems. Based on what you did there, it sounds like your HDD is in bad shape. Your HDD manufacturer has testing programs that can test the drive to see just how bad it is. Assuming you've backed-up everything on the HDD, I would try doing a verified zero-fill full erase of the HDD and then run the long-test diagnostic. I would use the bootable version of your HDD manufacturer's diagnostic and I would unplug the SSD before booting into the diagnostic. Generally, a failing HDD will also exceed SMART thresholds and will be reported as having failed SMART verification usually in BIOS and the OS and certainly in the diagnostic. Either way, it sounds pretty suspect and I'd go ahead and back-up everything and look for a replacement.
 
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G

GearUp

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Feb 19, 2010
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If you're certain you are done with the drive then uninstall the drive in Device Manager. Shut down manually rather than let it restart to register the changes. This will keep the registry and the list of ghost devices tidy. Some systems are more finicky than others.
 
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